Historical drama
A soldier survives the year Rome ate itself.
Rome, 69 AD. In the span of twelve months the empire will burn through four emperors — Galba, Otho, Vitellius, and finally Vespasian — and Lucius Valerius Corvus, a Praetorian centurion with a raven tattoo on his forearm and a scar from temple to jaw, is the man each regime hands its dirty work to. He is good at his job. He has to be: hidden across the city is Flavia, the daughter he cannot afford to let any government notice.
Corvus survives Galba's murder in the first days of January, Otho's brief and desperate reign, and Vitellius's occupation of a city he no longer recognizes, kept alive as much by the people around him as by his own discipline — Sabina, a tavern keeper whose network of cooks, porters, and widows knows more than the Senate does; Decimus, the oath-brother who dies protecting him; and Livia, a widow who has learned that grief, worn correctly, opens doors soldiers can't kick down. Each regime asks him to prove his loyalty in blood, and each time he pays it, a little more of what he actually believes in goes missing.
By the time Rome itself is burning and a new order is arriving through sealed letters and banners rather than armies, Corvus has run out of regimes willing to tell him what obedience is for. What he chooses instead — for Flavia, for Sabina, for the year that cost him everything he used to call honor — is the one refusal the empire never accounted for.
Rome, assembled
A first look at the year Rome nearly didn't survive.
Protagonist -- Praetorian centurion, First Cohort
A 37-year-old soldier from Lugdunum, Gaul, who confuses endurance with virtue. Publicly the perfect soldier; privately a hidden father. His arc runs from obedience to refusal across the four regimes he serves.
Popina owner and intelligence broker
A 32-year-old Jewish-Roman freedwoman whose tavern is a listening post fed by cooks, porters, laundresses, and widows. Corvus's lover and political equal; refuses to let him call silence honor.
Corvus's hidden daughter
A quiet, sharp-eyed nine-year-old who understands when adults lie without naming it. She is the witness official history cannot manage, not a rescue device or sentimental ornament.
Fellow centurion, Corvus's oath-brother
Broader and warmer than Corvus at 36 years old. Dies in Episode 2 saving him; his eagle standard becomes Corvus's private burden and grave marker through the rest of the season.
Patrician widow and courier-broker
A 27-year-old widow who weaponizes mourning and respectability, moving letters and intelligence through spaces soldiers cannot search without scandal.
Ten episodes, one per turn of the year's worst months.
Galba is murdered (Jan 15, 69 AD); Corvus is used as a purge weapon and finds a raven feather sealed with the old Nymphidian seal.
Otho consolidates power; Decimus dies saving Corvus, who inherits the eagle standard as a burden.
Roman kills Roman at the First Battle of Bedriacum (Apr 14); Otho dies and civil war breaks the moral language of soldiering.
Vitellius enters Rome and orders Sabina killed; Corvus disobeys and her popina burns as she escapes.
Sabina reveals the economic network beneath the civil war; Flavia sees soot on Corvus and stops trusting his official language.
Vespasian is proclaimed emperor in the East (Jul 1); Corvus becomes a double channel and Sabina is captured as leverage.
Corvus fights for the Flavian side without believing it pure at the Second Battle of Bedriacum (Oct 24-25) and is captured as a traitor.
Rome burns (Dec 19-20); Corvus lowers his sword because Flavia is watching, and the mob kills Vitellius instead.
Titus and Mucianus offer Corvus command, land, and legitimacy; the reasonable offer is the most dangerous one yet.
Corvus plants the eagle standard in Capitol ash, refuses power, and walks into the morning smoke with Sabina and Flavia.
